Forbidden Fruits
by Ai Tennshi
Summary: Cobra contemplates that small, tantalizing piece of information he received from Nico Robin.


_FORWARD: _

_I don't know if anyone else has written anything like this, but it's something I feel is rather necessary. The point of that conversation was to show us that Robin was a victim of circumstances, to begin an explanation of the Poneglyphs, and to hint at the tragedy of Robin's life. But in doing so, Cobra learned a very, very heavily guarded piece of information that even the _Straw Hats_ have never been informed of in canon. (Or maybe we're supposed to assume that Robin explains stuff to interested parties in the background? Who knows.)_

_Maybe this will turn out to be a red herring; on the other hand, maybe this will turn out to be a spark that ignites later, whenever it's time for Luffy and his crew to turn the world upside down with whatever truths and secrets they uncover at Raftel—for example, a new alliance between certain members of the World Summit and the Revolutionaries. Who knows, at this point? I assume we've still got 7-9 years to go before we reach that part of the story, so I'm trying not to think too much about those tantalizing Truths and Secrets._

_But Cobra's an intelligent and well-read man. What are the chances that he gleaned a piece of information like that and never thought about it again? Slim to none, I think. On that note, I'm working under the assumption that it's a red herring (because otherwise I'd have to write it out till the end, and that would be _really_ long and I can't spare the time or effort for that)._

_On that note, enjoy and review! ;)_

**Forbidden Fruits**

Political lies and state secrets are things that any person in a position of power and authority is familiar with by pure necessity. No matter how honest, no matter how dear one's subjects, none but fools can openly reveal everything they know. Human nature is an unpredictable thing, and there are secrets which could destroy the world if revealed to a single wrong person. If revealed to 1,000,000 people, who then each spread it to another 10 or so people, there could be 9,999,999 among these with good intentions; but all it would take was that single person among them to destroy the world.

So it was that King Nefertari Cobra had accepted the knowledge of the Pluton and the Poneglyph and accepted that these were secrets which could not be revealed unnecessarily—better that the underground chamber be forgotten in history than the knowledge fall into the wrong hands. He loved his people, and trusted them enough to know that they could govern themselves with him or without him. But the knowledge of a weapon so powerful that anyone who possessed it could destroy the world—this was something that he would rather be forgotten. Yet for eight centuries the House of Nefertari had protected the secret for a day when the world might see a need for such a weapon; and so he accepted that it must be kept secret and passed on to Vivi only when she was ready to carry the whole of the kingdom on her two shoulders, including its darkest secrets.

When he had agreed to lead Nico Robin down into the underground chamber that hid the Poneglyph, he hadn't realized that she could read the ancient glyphs. He had known her to be a wanted criminal, and could vaguely recall the name being linked to some tragedy a decade or two ago, but as the incident had had no bearing on Alabasta whatsoever, it was not something which he had seen fit to memory. He had planned to lead her underground and start the crumbling of the chamber; he had expected her to stare in dismay at the glyphs and perhaps demand a translation from him; he had expected that by the time Crocodile arrived, the chamber would finish crumbling and kill them all.

He hadn't even imagined that the woman was capable of deciphering the glyphs at a glance—even less that she would then proceed to _lie_ to her partner about what was written, knowing that he would seek to kill her. Cobra watched as Crocodile impaled the woman who had been his partner for four years, and then again as a scrawny young boy who claimed to be a pirate proceeded to best Crocodile in battle for Vivi's sake. For a short while, there was nothing on his mind but the impossible battle taking place before his eyes and the welfare of his 1,000,000 subjects who would die in minutes if Vivi and Pell could not find and stop the bombers in time.

But then the boy had won, and Nico Robin was offering him the antidote to the poison that was killing the boy in spite of his victory. As he administered the antidote, all at once the strangeness of the events preceding the boy's arrival on the spot came rushing back to him, and he studied the woman with a crease between his brows.

"You said that there was only history inscribed here," he recalled. "Why did you lie?"

"You knew? How naughty." But there was a hint of a wry smile on her face that suggested that this wasn't as surprising as she claimed.

Cobra kept going, as though now that he knew there was nothing to hide, he _had_ to put into words the secret that he had not spoken of since his own father's death over a decade before.

"There is no history carved in that stone. Everything about the weapon that you so desired should have been inscribed there—which of course includes its location. Had you offered that information to Crocodile, the kingdom would have been his then and there. Am I wrong?"

"It's no care of mine," sighed the woman. "I never cared whether the country's people lived or died. I never intended to offer the weapon to Crocodile either."

"I don't understand. Then why did you come here?" Because the only other explanation was that this woman had intended to take the weapon as her own—but she showed no indication that this was her aim, neither then nor now.

"Expectation and hope are two different things. I seek the Rio Poneglyph. The one among the Poneglyphs scattered throughout the world that dictates the True History—this is the Rio Poneglyph."

"The true history," Cobra repeated slowly. "What do you mean by that?"

She closed her eyes as though closing him off from the terrible truth that her words hinted at. "I'm done," she said with a tired smile. "For twenty years I've sought it. I know nowhere else to look. This was my last hope—and it was in vain. Dying here this way will be perfect. I've tired of living this path. All I want is to know our history—yet there are too many who oppose my dream."

A tear was rolling down her cheek. But the hint was _there_, out in the open, nagging at Cobra's gut. It couldn't be...but if it was _true_...

"I must ask," he said, all pain forgotten in the moment, "is it possible to weave together the threads of the Unspoken History? Do you mean that the Poneglyphs are the means to do so?"

She said no more, just smiling that same, grieving smile. It was answer enough. The truth hit Cobra's gut like a bullet as questions raged through his mind.

_Then why do we so furiously forbid the deciphering of these glyphs? Then what is it that we seek to protect by hiding the very existence of the Poneglyphs? Why is it that the means to regain those missing years is the same as the means to recover the three ancient weapons?_

But then Luffy was on his feet once more and carrying them out, and the conversation came to an end.

Though the days following the end of the war were busy ones, filled with attempts to find food and shelter for those who had none, both due to the attack of Nanohana and the war in Alubarna, every so often Cobra found himself with a fraction of an hour to spend looking through old news articles in the library. Twenty years ago, he remembered the marine saying. So he searched through news articles of the time until he came across the one that he was looking for.

An island called Ohara, once the capital of historians and home to the greatest library known to man, had been attacked and annihilated by the World Government for the crime of deciphering the ancient script in order to attain one of the three ancient weapons which had been forever hidden from the world. One young girl among those Devils had escaped, sinking six warships along the way.

Had Cobra read the article a few days ago—and when he had read it decades ago, no doubt—he would have felt saddened on behalf of the World Government for having to carry out such a terrible task. He would have grieved for the loss of the island that could have continued to contribute so greatly to mankind's knowledge of history if only the people hadn't been foolish enough to seek such destructive a power.

Now, after one two-minute conversation with the woman herself, he saw the article in a completely different light. It had all made sense when the Poneglyphs were nothing but a means to the ancient weapons. But if they were more than that—if they truly were the only remaining means to regain a knowledge of those missing hundred years... Now that he had seen and heard with his own eyes and ears as the woman called the Devil's Child was nearly killed as she refused to give up the location of the Pluton...

After years of keeping his own state secrets, it was impossible that he would not recognize this for what it was. The World Government was keeping secrets from the world. Not only that—but the loss of those hundred years was simply unnatural. Alabasta kept records of its history in tomes, numbered by the decade; ten volumes were missing, between 310 and 321. The numbers suggested that they had once existed, yet volume 321 opened as if carrying on from the end of volume 310—vague references were made to the missing years, but never anything more informative than allowing the reader to know that a century had passed since the end of the last volume. The World Government itself did not feature until another ten volumes after that, when Alabasta had joined the World Summit.

Cobra thought of the scribes recording Alabasta's history now, and was at once overcome by a wrenching feeling in his chest as he thought of all the world events that the students sometimes begged to include—that then got excluded because they were not strictly a part of Alabastan history. It had always seemed so ordinary, so logical, up until now when Cobra found himself yearning for any small piece of knowledge he could glean about those hundred years.

He thought of the World Government. He thought of the 170 countries allied together in the name of peace, and of the blind eyes turned to the conduct of the World Nobles. He thought of the slave trade that everyone of influence knew existed on certain islands, to which all allied countries unanimously turned a blind eye. He had never thought about it very deeply, simply accepting that the World Government was larger than the tiny island of Alabasta.

He wondered if all the other countries of the world experienced the same phenomenon—yet he could scarcely ask.

_Why?_ Cobra wondered furiously, hating himself as he forced the question back down into the depths of his heart. He turned his back on the library and resolved not to wonder too much. He was a king, and as such had a duty to his people. Illegal curiosity was more than he could afford.

All he could do was to hope that Nico Robin had continued onwards—that she had carried on living and picked up the shreds of her dream once more.

So when Igaram, Chaka and Pell exclaimed in horror over the knowledge of Nico Robin's involvement in the Straw Hats' attack on Enies Lobby, when Vivi smiled and declared her blind faith in the judgment of Straw Hat Luffy, Cobra said nothing. He only hoped: hoped that the Straw Hats had not taken on more than they could handle—hoped that someday, they would reach that truth that Nico Robin so desired and share it with the world.

Foolish though he knew it was, Cobra dreamed of the day when these dangerous state secrets would be a thing of the past.


End file.
